


Not Bad Company

by randi2204



Category: The Magnificent Seven (TV)
Genre: 3K Round-up Challenge, Books, Gen, Reading
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-23
Updated: 2016-06-23
Packaged: 2018-07-16 21:52:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7286071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/randi2204/pseuds/randi2204
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A bit of reading in the sun.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Bad Company

**Author's Note:**

  * For [farad](https://archiveofourown.org/users/farad/gifts).



> **Disclaimer:** Not mine, no money, just having fun.

****“Mister Larabee, I’ve finished my book.”

 

Chris made a non-committal noise, but gave no other sign he’d heard Ezra.

 

For a moment, the only sounds were the creak of wagons and jingle of harness from the street, the low murmur of townsfolk going about their business, and Chris turned the page in his book.  The sun shone warmly on the boardwalk in front of the saloon, and he shifted position slightly to take full advantage – turned slightly toward Ezra in the other chair, letting the light fall across his arm and onto the page.

 

Ezra huffed.  “You know the agreement Mister Jackson forced upon me,” he said in a low voice, which amused Chris to no end, because he was damn well certain that half the town had heard Ezra and Nathan arguing the day before.  “I am not allowed to take the stairs to my room without someone there to support me… because apparently Mister Jackson thinks I am still so weak I will fall down and _break my fool neck_.”

 

The last was said in obvious imitation of Nathan, and Chris’s lips twitched.  He kept his attention on his book, though he wasn’t really reading any longer.  He flicked a glance at Ezra from the corner of his eye.

 

Ezra was still pale, still too thin looking; Chris couldn’t help but think that the fever had burnt away too much of him.  He shivered in his patch of sun, fingers tightening on the book momentarily before he forced them to relax.

 

After a short silence, clearly waiting for some response, Ezra sighed, leaning back in his chair carefully.  Chris thought he heard him mutter something about not even able to entertain himself.  Nathan had told Ezra in no uncertain terms he wasn’t to try shuffling or dealing, and had likely confiscated his cards before letting him out of the clinic.

 

Ezra had insisted that he be _properly attired_ and had managed shirt and vest with help, but the wound in his shoulder and the fitted coat had defeated him.  The attempt had left him with a sheen of sweat on his brow, and that was before he’d even let Nathan adjust his arm to put the sling on him.

 

“If you are nearly finished, Mister Larabee, we could perhaps trade?” The hopeful note in Ezra’s voice was almost too much.  “Mine was quite interesting….”

 

“Ezra.” At last Chris looked up from his book and met Ezra’s eyes directly.  “You want me to get you another book from your room, just say so.”

 

Ezra blinked at him for a moment, then licked his lips and dropped his gaze.  “Mister Larabee, would you be so kind as to retrieve a book from the stack on my bedside table… please?”

 

Even sitting next to him as he was, Chris barely heard the words.  But he nodded and rose, reaching for the book Ezra had already finished.  A few moments later, he handed Ezra the next book from the pile and settled back into his own chair.

 

“Thank you.”  Ezra took the book and opened it against his knee, immediately engrossed in its pages… or at least pretending to be.

 

Chris kept watching him out the corner of his eye, though he pretended to keep reading, and felt his lips tug in a grin when Ezra started to nod off a short while later.  He managed to catch the book before it could slip from the long, lax fingers and fall to the boardwalk, and set it on the barrel that rested near his feet.   Just for an instant, he studied Ezra to make sure he was still breathing; in the depths of his fever, he’d sworn Ezra had stopped altogether…

 

“Took longer than I thought.”  Nathan’s quiet voice made Chris look up.  Nathan stood in the street, and he, too, was watching Ezra closely.  “Man is stubborn.”

 

“You got that right,” Chris replied softly.  “I’ll stay here with him.  He ain’t bad company like this.”  He flashed Nathan a wicked grin, and Nathan chuckled before heading off down the street.

 

Chris turned to his book once more, but if his eyes strayed often from the page to Ezra’s sleeping form, well, that was all right, too.  It wasn’t like he had anything more important to do than this.   

**Author's Note:**

> A fill for the [fic_promptly](http://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org) prompt [Mag 7, author's choice, reading](http://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org/63927.html?thread=3042743#cmt3042743).


End file.
